Quinn calls on Burris to quit — Gov. Pat Quinn at his press conference this morning. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) — Gov. Patrick Quinn today called on U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign amid the furor of questions over his contacts with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

White House sends Burris a warning — In what sounded like a veiled threat, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called on Sen. Roland Burris to “take some time over the weekend” to explain once and for all exactly what happened before his appointment to the Senate and to consider “his future.”

Dodd Says Short-Term Bank Takeovers May Be Necessary — Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said banks may have to be nationalized for “a short time” to help lenders including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. survive the worst economic slump in 75 years.

Schumer: Failed ‘Zombie’ Banks Should Be Nationalized — Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) believes that failed “zombie” banks, no matter what their size, should be taken over by the government, which should then wipe out shareholders, fire management, clean up the banks and quickly resell them into the marketplace.

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence — Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday, there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole. — In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack.

AP Interview: LaHood eyes taxing miles driven … WASHINGTON (AP) - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn—an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.

Money for Idiots — Our moral and economic system is based on individual responsibility. It's based on the idea that people have to live with the consequences of their decisions. This makes them more careful deciders. This means that society tends toward justice — people get what they deserve as much as possible

Obama Bans Gimmicks, and Deficit Will Rise — WASHINGTON — For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget …

The Obama Cabinet is a CEO black hole — In President Barack Obama's Cabinet, there is a Nobel Prize winner, a former mayor, and a veteran CIA agent. Surrounding him in the White House West Wing are a former four-star general, one of the nation's most eminent economists …

Obama's Supine Diplomacy — The Biden prophecy has come to pass. Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, predicted in October that “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.” Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban missile crisis.

Glenn Greenwald is Hysterical — Not funny-hysterical, just hysterical. I think he feels badly about writing for The American Conservative, maybe because he knows that writing for a magazine founded by Pat Buchanan and animated by Buchanan's hostility to Jews and to Israel is a self-marginalizing act …

Sen. Specter Jeered For Voting For Stimulus Plan — PITTSBURGH (KDKA) &#8213; U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was greeted with jeers at a press conference in Cranberry Township. — Conservatives are fuming after Specter cast the deciding vote that led to the passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan.

Bill Clinton: Obama Should Sound More Hopeful — Says President Should Voice Economic Optimism, Paint GOP as the Party of ‘No’ — Former President Bill Clinton gives President Barack Obama an “A” grade for his first month in office, but tells ABC News that Obama needs to put on a more positive face …

Washington Post Stands By Climate Change Denialism — For those who are late to the party, recently George Will wrote a column claiming, most broadly, that in the 1970s there was a scientific consensus that the world was suffering from “global cooling” that was as firm as the current consensus about global warming.

WHAT WOULD MICHAEL STEELE DO? — Ever watched a parent explain math to a child? “Imagine Johnny has three power rangers, but you only have one power ranger...” That's sort of the tactic “The American Issues Project” is taking in its attempt to attack the stimulus.

A test for the Israeli lobby — The pro-Israel wing of Obama's supporters has generally been pretty happy with the state of the administration, from Hillary's appointment to Dennis Ross' role with Iran. George Mitchell, by downplaying Israeli settlements and stressing Iran policy yesterday, won raves from hawkish Jewish leaders.

Upside-Down Economics — In January, Suze Orman, the blonde financial adviser who's all over TV telling you to cut up your credit cards, went on “Oprah” to discuss how to cope with the recession. Orman recommended not eating in restaurants for a month. The appalled National Restaurant …

Deregulation and the Financial Panic — Loose money and politicized mortgages are the real villains. — The debate about the cause of the current crisis in our financial markets is important because the reforms implemented by Congress will be profoundly affected by what people believe caused the crisis.

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